The kings are dead. Pedro Martinez has re-discovered his daddy. The New York Yankees are World Champs. With a 7-3 defeat of the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night, the Yankees un-crowned the defending World Series winners and christened New Yankee Stadium in exactly the way – and perhaps the only acceptable way – that Yankee fans had hoped for. They managed to redeem the woes of 2008 with a runaway season this year and a dominating October. And what better way to finish it than by once again playing father to ‘the only man who can incite fear in Yankee fans without taking the mound’?

How unexpected is it that Pedro Martinez, the man who held out on signing a contract until halfway through the season because teams thought his price was too high, couldn’t get the job done in the most important game of his career? One can argue that his 2004 World Series was more important, but pitching against the New York Yankees – the team whom he has his greatest rivalry with – in a do-or-die situation is clearly much more significant. Rumors said he wanted as much as $5 million, and then he signed for $1 million. The Phillies learned quickly that you get what you pay for. The fact is that Pedro blew it.

It started in the second inning when MVP-to-be Hideki Matsui hit a massive fly ball over the wall, followed in the third by a two-run single that all but ended Pedro’s already short season in the fourth inning. Martinez’s fastball velocity was far lower than what’s come to be expected of him lately, and his command wasn’t there either. With the 7-3 loss, history will remember Pedro as officially going 0-2 in the World Series. Few will remember that he actually pitched good enough to win game two. They’ll just remember that he pitched bad enough to lose game six.

So with the loss, the 2009 Major League Baseball season is officially over, and the Yankees will scour the available talent and throw bags of money at them to fill in the holes (most likely in the bullpen) to try to defend their title in 2010. Martinez will officially be a free agent again, and he’ll be 38 years old next year. This guy isn’t getting any better with age. Is he still a good fit in Philadelphia, or was he just a means to an almost-end? He proved that he can still do it, but you can’t help wondering when his fastball will officially run out of gas.